Now that Ringling Bros. have announced their final season, I find myself reflecting on the word circus. What will happen to it, if there is no more circus? Will it re-boot itself to mean something new? After all, the original “circus” was simply the arena...

When asked what surprised him about humanity the most, the Dalai Lama replied: “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. “ Nothing is more important than your health….except for your money –...

“A person who smiles a lot is either a fool or an American.” Russian saying Gray skies are gonna clear up Put on a happy face. Brush off that frown and cheer up Put on a happy face. From Bye Bye Birdie I...

The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. The Tempest Act 4, scene...

Years ago, I went to Hayden Planetarium for their sky show, which was a trip through the universe, and a lesson on scale. For the finale, the camera began to pull back from our conveniently located position at the center of the universe, to its furthest edges, and...

California Style Magazine stares up at me from the coffee table in my hotel room. It features a parade of impossibly tall, thin women with sculpted faces and futuristic Barbie hairdos. Like the almost human androids in the movie Blade Runner, these women seem...

I ran away for the first time in Kindergarten. Standing in line after school with all the other kids waiting for the stupid bus, I had the existential realization that life is too short to wait for a bus and decided I needed to explore the world. When the nun turned...

I am having lunch with an old friend. Just as he is bemoaning all the goings on of his collapsing marriage, the phone rings. His cell phone that is. “Excuse me,” he purses his lips in that embarrassed “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I left my cellphone on”...

I’m told that a treadmill affords people the possibility of movement and exercise that would not be available because of weather or other circumstances. Yet every time I see someone walking or running, getting nowhere, I experience a poignant tug, somewhere between...

Of course I love my husband Ron. And I know he loves me. But for thirty eight years, we’ve danced around the kitchen trying to reconcile our different relationships to food. As is always the case, it’s more than just about eating. I imagine Freud and Jung sitting in...

“Learn at first concentration without effort: Transform work into play; make every yoke that you have accepted easy and every burden that you carry light.” Anonymous (From Meditations on the Tarot – The Magician) Many years ago, while performing in France, I was...

“The world thus appears as a complicated tissue of events, in which connections of different kinds alternate or overlap or combine and thereby determine the texture of the whole.” (Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy, 1963) When you walk through the Northwest Airlines...